I love to put numbers to Earth Surface Processes that operate over different spatial and temporal scales - be it erosion of the mountains, sediment flux across a drainage basin, rock/ surface uplift due to tectonic movements, rate of change in denudation rates from tectonically-active domains etc. As the aim is to quanitfy process rates, putting time constraints is fundamental to my research program. I use multiple dating techniques such as terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide-based exposure and burial dating, luminescence dating using detrital quartz-feldspar grains and low-temperature thermochronology. My major research focus is understanding the evolution of the Himalaya. However, lately I have grown interest in geoarchaeology. I am exploring the geological reasons behind the abrupt decline in Indus Valley civilization from certain parts of the western India.

All Publications

Millennial-scale slip rates along blind Himalayan Frontal Thrust: Findings from Chalsa-Gorubathan Recess in east-central Himalaya by Mondal S., Das S. , Chauhan N. , Dey S. Terra Nova 37 - (2025)
Rapid Late Pleistocene frontal fault growth and Sutlej drainage reorganization in the western Himalaya by Kordt J., Dey S. , Bookhagen B. , Rugel G. , Lachner J. , Vivo-vilches C. , Panda S. K., Chauhan N. , Thiede R. C. Lithosphere - (2025)
Eroding the Himalaya by Godard V., Attal M. , Dey S. , Lupker M. , Thiede R. Himalaya, Dynamics of a Giant vol. 3 - (2023)
Dominant role of deglaciation in Late Pleistocene Early Holocene sediment aggradation in the Upper Chenab valley, NW Himalaya. by Dey S., Chauhan N. , Mahala M. K., Chakravarti P. , Vashistha A. , Jain V. , Ray J. S. Quaternary Research 113 122-133 (2023)
Holocene slip rates and their implications for seismic hazard along the Himalayan Frontal Thrust in western Himalayan Nahan salient. by Kaushal R. K., Dey S. , Guha S. , Chauhan N. , Singh A. Terra Nova 35 370-378 (2023)
Tectonic and Climatic coupling on bedrock gorge incision in the western Himalayan interiors by Dey S. 37th Himalaya Karakoram Tibet workshop - (2025)

Completed Projects

Principal Investigator

Sediment transport from source to sink: evaluating the lag time through Himalayan intermontane sediment archives to the Indo-Gangetic foreland basin SRIC, IIT KHARAGPUR
Steep landscapes inside the Sikkim Himalaya: Is the Main Central Thrust Zone accommodating active crustal shortening from million-year to millennial timescales? Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF)

Alumni members